While many other cities want less self-storage, Philadelphia has developed a love affair with it in recent years, writes Jake Blumgart and Ryan W. Briggs for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

In late September, an array of local leaders lined up to praise a new use for Pier 40, which had been neglected for years. It was then sold to a New York-based developer who refurbished and transformed it into Philly’s latest self-storage facility.

“This use pays homage to its industrial past,” said Bart Blatstein, Philadelphia developer who sold the property. “It’s a great service for the community.”

Since 2020, Philly has seen at least two dozen self-storage facilities open up.

This vast increase in self-storage facilities can be credited to the combination of a boom of consumer purchases during the pandemic, rising interest rates, and housing shortages. The latter two made moving to a larger home harder for many families as self-storage developers rushed to meet the demand.

“In this less affordable [housing] environment that we’re in, storage is getting used more than what we’ve seen in the past,” said Nick Walker, vice chairman of real estate services firm CBRE’s self-storage arm.

Developers are now eyeing land in University City and parts of South Philadelphia and the Northwest for more storage facilities.

Read more about the influx of self-storage facilities across the city in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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